STA, 7 February 2022 - This year's main ceremony dedicated to Culture Day highlighted the constructive response of artists in any crisis. The Prešeren Prizes, top national accolades in culture, were conferred at the event in Cankarjev Dom on Monday evening, the eve of the public holiday, to celebrate various artistic achievements.
Referring to the current challenging times, the chairman of the Prešeren Fund board, Jožef Muhovič, said in his keynote address that "art has always responded to various challenges and crises (...) with the energy of constructiveness".
Artists, he said, have always been creating on the borderline between the known and the unknown, the routine and the visionary. They venture into the unknown and attempt to convey it, they expand horizons, reflect on what they experience and pave the way from the insignificant to the significant.
For Muhovič, art is a rite of passage into another state of being and coexistence between the world and people. This state, however, cannot be programmed or created at will or dictated. "Sometimes it cannot be created at all, but only the favourable conditions for its emergence can be prepared," said the keynote speaker.
The current board members were unanimous at the beginning of their term that Culture Day should be a celebration that honours the achievements and works of Slovenian artists, Muhovič added.
This year's Prešeren Prizes for lifetime achievement were awarded to Kajetan Gantar, an acclaimed philologist and translator of classical literature and philosophy, who is honoured for his "priceless" contribution to Slovenian knowledge of classicism, and celebrated conductor and musicologist Mirko Cuderman for his indelible impression on Slovenian choral music.
The 91-year-old Cuderman did not attend the ceremony in person, but in his acceptance speech that was read out loud he said he is honoured and pleased that the board has awarded him the lifetime achievement prize.
"I gratefully accept it as a recognition of Slovenian choral singing" or all those known and unknown singers and other artists involved in this artistic pursuit, he added, describing choral singing as one of the most significant expressions of Slovenian musical culture.
Gantar, also 91, attended the event in person and received a standing ovation.
Moreover, Prešeren Fund Prizes, celebrating individual accomplishments or achievements in the past three years, were bestowed on poet and writer Anja Štefan, theatre actress Jette Ostan Vejrup, composer Damijan Močnik, soprano Andreja Zakonjšek Krt, painter Dušan Kirbiš and animation filmmaker Špela Čadež.
The ceremony was attended by most of this year's laureates and some of last year's winners, as well as senior officials, including parliamentary Speaker Igor Zorčič, Prime Minister Janez Janša and Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti.
It was directed by Katja Pegan, who has been inspired by Romantic poet France Prešeren's epic poem The Baptism by the Savica when setting the tone of the event. Culture Day, a public holiday marking the anniversary of Prešeren's death, will be celebrated on Tuesday in a limited form.
